Perfect Picture Book Friday – Love Is Kind with a GIVEAWAY!

Not only is it Perfect Picture Book Friday, it’s the day author Laura Sassi is stopping at my little blog on her blog tour! (Thanks so much for joining us, Laura, and including us in the launch of this wonderful book!)

As a result, we have a great book to share as well as FANTASTIC activities from the author herself!

Let’s get right to it, shall we? 🙂

Title: Love Is Kind

WrittenBy: Laura Sassi

Illustrated By: Lison Chaperon

Zonderkidz, August 2018, fiction

Suitable For Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: love, kindness, doing the right thing

Opening: “Little Owl jingled the coins in his pocket. It was Grammy’s birthday. And, finally, he had enough money to buy her something special – a heart-shaped box of chocolates.He took out the coins – so shiny and new – and ready to spend. But then. . .”

Brief Synopsis: Little Owl has planned a special gift for Grammy’s birthday, but one thing after another goes wrong. He perseveres, doing the right thing even when it is difficult, and ends up giving Grammy an unplanned but even more wonderful gift.

Links To Resources: Today we have wonderful, special resources straight from the author! Take it away, Laura! 🙂

(With apologies from me that the text is so crunched together – I could not get this to format properly no matter what I did!)

Today I’m delighted to share with you a sweet baking activity created by French illustrator Lison Chaperon, with a little collaboration from the author (me!) to adapt the recipe to US measurements. Click HERE to download a high quality at scale version for better printing. I hope you enjoy it!

In addition to being absolutely delicious, this LOVE IS KIND-inspired baking activity has gotten me thinking about how wonderful it is when we pair picture books with a tasty book-themed treat. In doing so, not only are we giving our kids the opportunity to learn some baking/cooking skills, we are helping them to connect to the story in a new and fun way. As we nibble and chat about the book, we’re also instilling in them a framework to talk about the stories we read and an opportunity to think about how picture books relate to our lives and the world. Finally, we’re fostering good critical thinking skills as we converse with our little ones about what treat would be best paired with a particular picture book.

With all these benefits in mind, here are FIVE tips for PAIRING PICTURE BOOKS with TASTY TREATS.

1. Pick any picture book. (Better yet, let your child pick the book.)

2. Pre-read the story so you can gather your ingredients. Once you’ve selected your picture book, take a few minutes a day or two ahead of time so that you can anticipate what types of treats you and your child might want to create to pair with the story. This way you can be sure to have the ingredients in stock for a seamless and tasty brainstorming to baking to eating experience.

3. As you read with your child, ponder the treat-making possibilities. It’s most beneficial (and engaging) to your budding critical thinkers if you include them in the process of deciding what book-themed treat to create, though it’s perfectly acceptable, in my opinion, to gently lead them towards the ingredients you have on hand (see step two). As you are pondering, the treat might be obvious. For example, in my third book DIVA DELORES AND THE OPERA HOUSE MOUSE, Fernando the mouse loves gumdrops, popcorn, and cheese on try toast, so those would be obvious picks.

But…

4. Sometimes you will have to be creative! Some picture books, however, won’t have such obvious choices. My recommendation, in these instances, is to pick a character or a defining element of the story and create a treat inspired by that. For example, on her blog, Easy Elegant Entertaining™, trained chef and cookbook author (and mom to an adorable young budding reader), Addie Gundry, uses the concept of tails in GOODNIGHT, ARK to create an adorable book-themed treat. http://addiegundry.com/theblog/2018/3/21/tails-on-the-ark-two-by-two

You can also create character-based cookies for almost any book, as my daughter did for Tara Lazar’s THE MONSTORE and my GOODNIGHT, ARK.

Tiger Cookies for Goodnight Ark

5. Have fun! (Need I say more?)

Thank you, Laura! What a fun activity!

Why I Like This Book: The story is sweet with a beautiful message about what love really is (from 1.Corinthians.13). While the story unfolds, the lovely words from the Bible verse appear in dreamy lettering in the background – on the breeze, in a rainbow, etc. Not at all heavy-handed, but beautifully woven into the story. Little Owl’s behavior and reactions are realistic and believable – frustration, disappointment, envy, sadness – but he doesn’t give in to his negative emotions, choosing instead to be a good person. He shows up at Grammy’s empty-handed and unhappy, only to find that by being himself he has given her the best gift of all. The art is warm and appealing, and Little Owl is adorable 🙂

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂

Here’s the book trailer in case you’d like a further glimpse of the book!

The publisher has generously offered a giveaway of one copy of LOVE IS KIND to one of our readers. To qualify, you must be a U.S. resident with a street address (as opposed to a P.O. Box) and at least 18 years old to enter. If you wish to be considered, please leave a comment below indicating your interest by Monday October 8 at 9PM Eastern and we will randomly select a lucky winner!

PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!

The muffins are delish… and they disappeared quickly when I baked them. And I agree about kids having a hard time understanding that things don’t always go as planned. That’s hard for many grown ups too! LOL!

I think we’ll all be trying out the muffin recipe 🙂 And I agree – it’s hard for everyone to accept that things don’t always go as planned, and one of the things I love about this book is that Little Owl models how not to let your disappointment turn you into a lesser person.

Love this book…love the whole idea of this book…and love all of the sweet activities. I’m a big fan of kids in the kitchen and pairing picture books with cooking activities and craft projects! Laura is one of my kidlit heroes! As are you, Susanna!

I saw this at the bookstore last week and was immediately drawn in by the charming illustrations. The story was equally delightful! Thanks for sharing the fun activities. My kids would love those pretzel tails!